By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An ex-Bahamas Chamber of Commerce chairman yesterday warned that construction will remain a "free for all" until the industry's long-promised self-regulation and licensing regime takes full effect.

Robert Myers, also a former Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA) president, told Tribune Business that both the Board to oversee the Construction Contractors Act's implementation, and the law itself, should have been brought into effect "15-20 years" ago to protect Bahamian consumers from shoddy workmanship and price gouging.

Speaking after the Prime Minister met with current BCA executives to pledge that the Board will be appointed by the first week in September, if not sooner, he argued that those opposed to such a move - and the contractor licensing and certification regime it will initiate - are "probably people who have no business being in the construction industry in the first place".

Besides enhancing consumer protection, and giving Bahamians a readily accessible mechanism for redressing grievances with contractors, Mr Myers told this newspaper that by licensing contractors and trades persons according to the type and scale of work they can produce, the construction industry will be better able to compete with overseas rivals for work on foreign direct investment (FDI) projects.

"It's a manifestly important step for the country and particularly the consumer," he added of the need to end the nine-year wait for the Board's appointment and self-regulation. "The consumer has very little protection in terms of qualified and competent contractors.

"We should have had this Act in place 15-20 years ago, and the Board in place, and contractor education in place, and disciplinary committees and licensing. I think it's going to be extremely beneficial for the country overall and the consumer. 

"If you are a middle income person, and have spent your life savings and taken out loans, and have professional architects and engineers to design your home, the big unknown is who is qualified and certified to actually build it?" Mr Myers asked. "There's no licensing. It's a free for all.

"The consumer is subject to a whole plethora of standards, cost, quality and warranty concerns that could very well be dealt with by licensing contractors. Until we get that Act fully in place, and all the bits and pieces of it, you're not going to eliminate those concerns and threats."

While this was "the primary concern", Mr Myers said that without a regime that licences and certifies contractors according to their ability, developers and investors - especially foreign ones - have no idea who can competently execute their projects and are likely to resort to handing the work to overseas contractors.

"Having licensed contractors raises the quality of contractors overall and over time," he added, "and allows the Government to provide specifics, in terms of FDI, on licensed and certified contractors. That doesn't mean general contractors, it doesn't mean everybody, but it's the landscaper, the plumber, the electrician, the sheet rock guy, the tile guy; all these trades will fall under the Act.

"Each discipline requires licensing and certification. It's up to the Government and the industry to clean it up. The only people that will be opposed to the Act coming into place are probably people who have no business being in the construction industry in the first place. They are the ones muddying the waters for the other good people."

The Board’s role is to oversee the licensing and registration of Bahamian contractors and construction trades persons according to their abilities and the scale of projects and work they are able to perform. It would also enforce the Construction Contractors Act, which was passed into law almost a decade ago in 2016, imposing penalties and sanctions on those found guilty of misconduct and defective work.

However, the Act itself has never been enforced due to the failure to appoint the Board. This has left construction as the last major Bahamian profession without self-regulatory powers, but Leonard Sands, the current BCA president, said Philip Davis KC has promised to finally appoint the Board imminently.

The BCA chief told Tribune Business last week that the licensing and self-regulatory system ushered in by the Board’s approval should eventually result in increased business for Bahamian contractors as developers - both local and foreign - will know which companies and individuals can perform certain jobs competently based on the scale and type of work they are certified for.

“I would go on record as saying this is going to really break open the industry in a way we cannot even comprehend,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business. “We’ve said before that there are hundreds of millions, possibly billions of dollars, of investment that want to come to The Bahamas but because we don’t have licensed contractors it stays offshore.

“I think with licensed contractors becoming a reality, I think the construction industry in this country can surpass $2bn a year. I think that is not unrealistic - in excess of $2bn. We’re right now, I think, at $1.1bn to $1.2bn.” Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI) data showed the combined value of total construction starts hit $212.105m for the 2023 full-year, with new construction permits at $915.566m.

Mr Sands reiterated that construction industry output, which the BNSI said expanded by 19 percent or $146m in 2024 to $768m, will increase further because the new contractor licensing regime will give investors confidence that Bahamian firms can perform the work. As a result, local contractors will be placed on a competitive ‘level playing field’ with foreign rivals in battling for FDI project work.

“Now we’re going to go toe-to-toe with everyone,” the BCA president said. “No longer will someone have an unfair advantage over a Bahamian contractor. It gives them a real fighting chance to fairly and properly participate in the work that happens in this country; not just some of it but all of it.

“I think consumers are also finally going to get a better product for the money they spend. They are going to have the benefit of having more trained individuals offering contractor services, and hopefully persons who should not be engaged in offering construction services to the public will have a more difficult time to do so.”

However, Mr Sands said self-regulation will take time to implement due to the ‘grandfathering in’ period for existing contractors and trades persons to become licensed and registered under the new system introduced by the Board.

The initial “grandfathering” period expired two years after the Act was passed in 2016, which would have been 2018. This now has to be reset, with the two-year period set to start in 2026 and run until 2028, the BCA president added.

“The Prime Minister did indicate that has to go back before Parliament for them to amend the timeline for grandfathering existing contractors,” Mr Sands added. “It would have ended in 2018. It now has to start from 2026 through to 2028.

“That’s going to be the new two-year period. The effective date will be when they announce the Board. It will be two years, 2026 through to 2028. That’s not a big thing. The Prime Minister reached out to have this meeting and share this information. I certainly believe it will happen in the timeline he said it will.”